Shadow and Maria: Into the Abyss
by Blue Phoenix 12
Summary: After a routine mission goes horribly wrong, Shadow is knocked into an abnormal and unprecedented state of unconsciousness. Now, as he finds himself trapped in a strange plane of existence, his daughter Maria feels she is the only one who can save him from the mysteries of the abyss into which he has fallen. Three-part story featuring original characters from Generation Beta.
1. The Fall

Maria Geraldine Hedgehog ran as fast as she could down the long corridor. Her heart was racing, and her mind was still buzzing with the awful news she had received not an hour ago. It couldn't be true, she thought, it just couldn't... but she had to be sure. The light gray hedgehog reached the end of the hallway and bolted through the double doors, hoping against hope that the sight awaiting her on the other side would calm her down and ease her doubts.

She was wrong. The next sight that met Maria's eyes was not a pleasant one; several of her closest friends and family were gathered in the large room, all of them bearing expressions of unease and deepest concern. Among these people were her mother, Crystal Hedgehog; her husband, Miles Sonic Hedgehog; and her father-in-law, Sonic the Hedgehog. Everyone in the room turned sharply to face the doorway as Maria burst in, and based on the traces of fear and uncertainty in their eyes, the light gray hedgehog could tell they had some unfortunate information that they were reluctant to share with her.

"What happened?" Maria exclaimed nervously as Miles hurried over to her.

"Maria..." the lavender hedgehog began uneasily, placing his hands on his wife's shoulders as though to brace her for the news. "There was an incident. Your dad..."

"What about him?" the light gray hedgehog replied, growing more terrified by the second.

"There was an incident involving the Chaos Emeralds. Your dad was sort of... caught in the middle. He collapsed, and now... he's in trauma."

"_What_?"

Maria briskly brushed her husband's hands off her shoulders and hurried to the door on the far side of the room, close to which most of the others were currently standing. Upon reaching the door, the light gray hedgehog peered through its glass window into the room on the other side. From where she stood, all she could see was a large group of doctors gathered around a hospital bed, working frantically to aid the trauma victim lying in their midst. Maria couldn't see the victim's face, but based on the information her husband had just given her, she already knew who it must be.

Unwilling to believe the truth until she saw it with her own eyes, Maria suddenly pushed the door open and hurried into the room. Miles, who had been watching her in concern, quickly realized what was about to happen, and in his newfound fear, he rushed to the door to follow his wife. Despite his incredible agility, however, he did not manage to enter the room in time to prevent the terrible heartache his beloved wife was about to suffer.

Maria stared completely stunned at the trauma victim lying on the bed. As several of the doctors in the room looked up at her, the light gray hedgehog felt a horrible icy chill constrict her insides, for the patient's face was the last one she wanted to see in that condition. Lying motionless on the bed, his body covered in injuries and his eyes closed as he lay in a state of unconsciousness, was a black hedgehog with red highlights in his quills: Maria's father, Shadow the Hedgehog.

The trauma victim's daughter suddenly felt as though her world were crashing down around her. How could this be? The very person who had always been a hero in her eyes from her earliest memories was now lying helpless and vulnerable in a hospital, at the mercy of fate itself. It didn't make the slightest bit of sense, and as the realization of the cruel turn of events hit her and tears began to form in her dark blue eyes, Maria shook her head frantically in disbelief and cried out desperately:

"No... No, no! _Daddy_!"

One of the doctors in the room stepped around the bed, and for the first time since Maria entered the room, a familiar face became visible to her. It was a lilac hedgehog, with eyes as green as her twin brother's: Maria's sister-in-law, Dr. Lily Rose Hedgehog. Alarmed at the sight of the light gray hedgehog in distress, Lily turned towards the door and called out sharply:

"Miles, get her out of here!"

Maria, who had not removed her gaze from her father since she bolted into the room, suddenly buried her face in her hands and began to sob hysterically, her breath coming in sharp, labored gasps. A few seconds later, she felt her husband's arms wrapping around her, followed by his fearful voice in her ear:

"Honey, breathe!"

But Maria could not breathe, not while she was still in shock. As she struggled against the pain that was puncturing her heart, she succumbed to Miles's hold on her and collapsed in his embrace. Her head was spinning, and she felt as though her heart were about to burst. The last thing she recalled of the scene was the sensation of being lifted into her husband's arms while the frantic voices of the doctors filled her ears; after that, darkness closed in on her completely, and she knew no more.

* * *

"Maria... Maria..."

A soft male voice was sounding gently in Maria's ears. As her mind recovered its normal conscious state, the light gray hedgehog slowly opened her eyes to see her husband's face directly before her, slightly out of focus and gazing at her with intense concern in his green eyes.

"Maria, honey..." Miles breathed, a note of relief in his voice, "are you all right?"

Miles's wife hesitated for a moment to take in her surroundings. As her vision came completely into focus, Maria realized she was still in the lavender hedgehog's arms, and that he was kneeling on the floor of the room where she had originally seen him first when entering the hospital. Upon looking around the room, Maria noticed for the first time since she bolted through the double doors exactly who had been there waiting for her: aside from Miles, Sonic and Crystal, her friends Sonia Prower and Rex Echidna, as well as their respective fathers, Tails the Fox and Knuckles the Echidna, were also in the room, having been present at the time of the incident. Everyone else in the room was now staring back at her, with expressions of concern on their faces as intense as Miles's.

Maria slowly sat up and quietly stared around at the people looking down at her for a minute, then turned back to her husband and whispered fearfully:

"What happened to my dad?"

Miles gazed solemnly at his wife in silence, unsure of how to begin. He carefully rose to his feet, helping her rise with him, and led her over to a row of chairs against the back wall of the room. Once Maria had taken a seat, the lavender hedgehog stood before her and, after a moment's hesitation, began his explanation.

"The Robotniks had started another of their plans for world domination. Last week, they stole a Chaos Emerald from us, and they used it to build some sort of laser weapon with the power to hypnotize its targets. From the looks of it, they wanted to recruit mindless followers to help them in building their empire. While you stayed home, the others and I went to stop them while they terrorized a nearby city. We didn't think things would turn out like this; we've beaten the Robotniks before without a problem.

"But we hadn't counted on your dad's... sensitivity to the Emeralds' power. We managed to corner Dr. Eggman and Igor in some remote part of the city. Then my dad, Shadow and I faced them in a fight, to destroy their weapon and take the Chaos Emerald back. We brought some of our own Emeralds to the battle; we thought they would help us in our fight against the machine.

"As it turned out... we were wrong. At some point, I managed to break the case in the laser holding the Emerald, but right after that... I was stunned by a close-range shock weapon that Eggman used on me. When I fell back, the Chaos Emerald in the laser started reacting with our Emeralds. That was when Igor decided to turn the weapon on me.

"I saw my dad running to help me; I knew he was gonna try to save me. He was hurrying to stop it from hitting me... but Shadow got there first. It all happened so fast... in the blink of an eye... The Chaos Emeralds were still reacting, Igor fired a laser blast, your dad stepped in the way at the last second... The next thing we knew, there was this huge flash, and when the light vanished, your dad was lying on the floor, unconscious.

"We didn't know what happened; the laser should have hypnotized him, or at least stunned him. We didn't know why his reaction to the laser beam was different from the other victims, but we were sure it had to do with Chaos energy. Well, I recovered and hurried over to Shadow, while my dad finished off the Robotniks' machine himself. Then we brought your dad back to the hospital in Green Hill. As soon as he was in, I called you.

"Maria, my love..." said Miles sadly, watching tears forming again in his wife's dark blue eyes, "I'm so sorry! We never meant for this to happen. It... It should have been me! _I_ should have taken that hit! I'm sure I could have taken it; I had a Chaos Emerald on my side. I should have faced that machine myself!"

"No!" Maria suddenly cried, staring up at her husband in shock. "Miles... what happened was not your fault. And if something had happened to you, I would be just as worried and upset as I am now over my dad, if not more. What's done is done. Now... all we can do is wait and hope that everything will be all right."

Maria averted her eyes from her husband's, looking down at her hands in her lap. After a moment's silent hesitation, Miles took a seat beside his wife, reached out, and took her hand in his. As she looked up to face him once more, the lavender hedgehog proceeded to reassure her in as calm a voice as he could manage.

"He will get through this, you know. Shadow is strong. He'll make it, and everything _will_ be all right. He's in good hands; my sister is the best at her job. Everything will be fine, you'll see."

Maria slowly nodded once to acknowledge her husband's thoughtful words, then sadly bowed her head again, a tear rolling down her face. Miles leaned towards her and gently kissed her cheek, while secretly fighting back the horrific knot of guilt welling up in his own throat. And as he softly leaned his head against his wife's, the lavender hedgehog found himself silently thinking frantically to his father-in-law:

"Shadow... you have to survive this. Don't do this to us; don't do this to _her_. Whatever it takes... you have to make it through this. She needs you."

* * *

Lily shouted orders to her interns in her strictest, most professional voice. Being a second-year resident in Green Hill's Diamond Heart Hospital, it was her obligation to lead the other doctors around her in treating the trauma patients brought in to the best of their abilities. Despite her role as a superior doctor, however, the lilac hedgehog kept her gaze fixed determinedly on the monitors surrounding the hospital bed, refusing even to glance at the victim whose life she was currently trying to help save. She hadn't wanted this case; she was sure the very sight of the patient's face would throw her concentration off... but she was a professional, and she was the best in her year. Whatever it took, she would save him, even if it meant she would have to keep her eyes averted from him at all times.

"His vitals are dropping", Lily called out, making sure to treat this case exactly as she would any other trauma case. Her surrounding colleagues responded almost instantly.

"Charge to 200."

"Clear!"

As the sound of the defibrillator's electric shock reached her ears, Lily resisted more than ever the urge to look at the face of the black hedgehog on the bed, instead keeping her green eyes on the heart monitor before her while recalling the moment when he had first been admitted and she realized who her trauma patient was.

"Male hedgehog, age unknown, collapsed as a result of a hit from a laser. Weapon was built by known wanted criminals Dr. Eggman and Igor Robotnik."

The lilac hedgehog had been listening intently to her colleague's report while hurrying with him towards the pit. The hospital occasionally received cases of victims who had been injured by some weapon created by the Robotniks, so she was not surprised by that particular piece of information provided to her by her fellow doctor. As she turned the corner, however, she had been caught off guard by the sight of her father and her brother waiting near the entrance to the hospital's emergency wing.

"Dad?" Lily exclaimed curiously. "Miles? What...?"

Her question had been answered before it even left her lips. While a gurney was rolled past her by her colleagues, the lilac hedgehog suddenly caught sight of the trauma victim lying on it. The sight of the black hedgehog induced a horrible sensation within Lily; she felt her heart plummet into the pit of her stomach, and as the other doctors called to her, she only barely managed to mutter back to them in shock.

"I... I know him! That's Shadow the Hedgehog! He's... my sister-in-law's father..."

Suddenly realizing that the people around her were waiting for her to react, Lily had then turned back to face Sonic and Miles, an expression of pain and uncertainty on her face. She shook her head pleadingly at them.

"I... I can't..."

"You have to!" her father had replied, his strong, strict tone contrasting greatly with his daughter's whisper. "Please, Lily! We brought him to you for a reason!"

"No, Dad, I can't", the lilac hedgehog had insisted more firmly. "They're very strict about that: we're not allowed to attend to our own family."

"We know the hospital makes an exception for you, Lily."

"Yes, but only in cases of..."

But her voice cut off, for it was at that moment that Lily had finally registered the full severity of the situation. As her face began to pale in near panic, she had spared a glance back at the unconscious trauma victim before looking her worried father in the eyes again, hardly daring to breathe the question now clouding her mind:

"Chaos energy?"

Sonic had not given a spoken answer, but instead nodded once to confirm his daughter's fear. Lily then turned her attention to her twin, whose nervous expression seemed to match her own only too well.

"You're the best doctor we know!" Miles had pleaded. "You're the only one who can help us! Please, Lily, we need you!"

As she slowly registered her father and brother's words, Lily had turned around to look at Shadow again. They were right; having faced several adventures involving Chaos energy in her youth, she really was the only doctor who could help her family. It would be selfish of her to turn her back on them now. She had to take this case, whether she wanted to or not. Turning back to face Sonic and Miles, the lilac hedgehog removed the traces of doubt from her face and her voice, nodded once determinedly, and spoke again in a much stronger and more confident tone.

"I'll do what I can, I promise."

Lily was brought sharply back to reality by the sudden flicker of a steady pulse on the heart monitor before her. As she recovered from reliving her memory, she heard her interns speaking more calmly around her.

"We have a pulse."

"He's stabilizing."

The lilac hedgehog slowly exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. It was at this moment that she finally allowed herself to look upon the face of her patient. Shadow was gravely injured, showing signs of having taken severe damage from the laser weapon, and he was still unconscious... but he was stable, and more importantly, he was alive. Lily gazed at him quietly for a minute... then stepped slowly towards the wall beside the monitors and leaned up against it, trembling as she held her arm out to it for support. The other doctors in the room watched her nervously.

"Dr. Hedgehog?"

Lily turned her head up to face the intern who had spoken, a young crimson stoat standing nearest to her. She stared at him silently for a few seconds, then sighed deeply and replied as calmly as she could to his uneasy tone.

"We just saved my brother's father-in-law", she breathed, still trembling slightly as her emotions finally caught up with her. "I need a minute."

The interns in the room respected their resident's request, falling silent and waiting for her to recover her composure. For a minute, the only sound heard in the room was the steady blipping noise of the heart monitor. After a long pause, Lily took a deep breath, gently pushed back against the wall, and stood up straight once more, regaining her professional attitude as she turned to face her concerned interns. She hesitated for a few seconds, then casually addressed them all with a faint smile on her lips.

"Good work, everyone."

Some of the other doctors smiled weakly back at her, their nerves slowly subsiding at their superior's words of encouragement... until suddenly, something happened that effectively wiped all the smiles off everyone's faces and caused their fear to come rushing back.

Another of the interns in the room, a young jade green raccoon, sharply pointed at one of the monitors near her and cried out to her resident in a shrill voice:

"Dr. Hedgehog! What is that?"

Lily quickly shifted her eyes to the monitor at which her intern was pointing, and immediately felt an icy chill run down her spine. That particular machine was monitoring a very vital factor of Shadow's health, and the signal flashing up on the screen was not a good one.

The interns in the room all turned their eyes simultaneously to their superior, waiting for her to respond. They each felt a terrible knot of fear wrap itself around their insides as they heard her whisper a single fateful phrase:

"What in the world happened out there tonight?"

* * *

The group of heroes who had witnessed Shadow's unfortunate accident continued to wait semi-patiently in the waiting room for news of his health. Maria, who had not moved from her seat since her husband had accompanied her to the row of chairs, sat in silence with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands, staring blankly ahead while she struggled ever more with her writhing emotions. Miles watched her carefully from the chair beside hers, and, in an attempt to keep his wife as distracted as possible from the thought of her father, he began to make conversation in a barely calm voice.

"How are the boys?"

He was referring to their twin five-year-old sons, whom they had named Sonic and Shadow, after their grandfathers. Maria slowly lowered her hands, sat up straighter in her chair, and, catching on to Miles's intentions, turned to face him, replying in a tone to match his.

"They're fine", she said almost hoarsely, her voice still strained from screaming in desperation. "I left them at home with your mother."

Her husband nodded, not surprised by this information. His mother, Amy Rose, often took the time to look after her grandsons whenever neither of their parents could be home with them... as they couldn't now. Miles frequently accompanied his father on adventures against the Robotniks, while Maria worked with her own father as a field agent for G.U.N. This wasn't to say that the couple was never home to raise their children; in truth, they never left the boys with anyone else unless it was absolutely necessary, for both parents considered raising a family together their top priority in life.

Miles leaned towards his wife again and kissed her on the cheek once more. He then looked towards the payphone on the side wall of the waiting room, beside which his father was now standing, the phone's receiver to his ear; Sonic was in the middle of a conversation with Amy, explaining everything that had happened so far that night. The lavender hedgehog caught a bit of the conversation between his parents from where he sat by the back wall.

"He collapsed... We don't know. We brought him to the hospital in Green Hill as fast as we could... I have no idea. We left him with Lily; we're still waiting for her to bring us news... No, don't tell them anything yet. It's best they don't worry about their grandpa right now. They're only five; they shouldn't worry unless they have to..."

Sighing in relief as his father reassured his mother that the twins needn't be disturbed with the awful news just yet, Miles began to scan the rest of the room, his gaze falling first on Tails and Sonia, who were discussing the workings of the Robotniks' hypnotism laser; then on Knuckles and Rex, who were trying to decipher how the reaction between the Chaos Emeralds had been set off; and finally on Crystal, who was sitting in a chair on her daughter's other side and staring quietly at her, trying to find comforting words to say to Maria while struggling to conceal the full extent of her own fear and concern.

The lavender hedgehog slowly opened his mouth to speak words of reassurance to his wife and mother-in-law... but before he could say a word, the door leading off towards the trauma wing opened, and Lily stepped into the room.

The entire group fell silent as all heads turned to face her. The lilac hedgehog looked around silently at the several pairs of eyes watching her, maintaining an expressionless face while secretly trying to decide where to begin with her report. For a moment, the only sound that was heard in the room was Sonic's voice, hastily ending his conversation with his wife over the phone.

"Gotta go, honey; Lily's here. I'll call you back. Love you!"

The blue hedgehog quickly replaced the receiver on its hook and stepped over to join the rest of the group quietly watching Lily. The lilac hedgehog hesitated for a full minute, still staring back at everyone in silence... then slowly walked towards the row of chairs against the back wall, on which her brother, sister-in-law and sister-in-law's mother were all seated. As the rest of the group hurried to the back wall to hear the news, Maria stared up at Lily with pure terror in her dark blue eyes. The light gray hedgehog soon found herself praying that the words she was about to hear next would not be:

_We did everything we could_.

As it turned out, that dreadful phrase was not the one to reach everyone's ears next. The lilac hedgehog took a deep breath while gazing directly at her sister-in-law, then softly spoke much more encouraging news for everyone to hear:

"Your father is stable. He was badly injured, and went into shock shortly after he arrived at the hospital, but we managed to recover a pulse, and his vitals are now stable. He's alive."

As soon as those last words left Lily's lips, a shrill cry of relief was heard from Crystal, followed by sighs of equal alleviation from Sonic and the other heroes. The only one who didn't feel a sensation of newfound tranquility take her over at the lilac hedgehog's words... was Maria. She continued to stare at her sister-in-law, unable to break free of the rising terror gripping her insides, for she had heard something very different from what the others around her had heard...

Lily had not said Shadow would be fine; she had simply said that he was alive.

The light gray hedgehog did not react to the lilac one's words, still unsure of what to make of them. Maria and Lily stared at each other in silence, both hedgehogs waiting for the reactions of relief surrounding them to subside. They didn't have to wait long.

The first to notice the unusual lack of emotion on Maria's face was Miles. He had smiled at the news that his father-in-law was alive, but the smile quickly faded as he realized there was no trace of happiness on his wife's face.

"Maria?" said the lavender hedgehog in a confused tone, causing everyone else to fall silent again and turn to face the light gray hedgehog. "What's wrong?"

Maria did not reply to her husband's question directly, instead remaining silent while keeping her gaze fixed firmly on the lilac hedgehog standing before her. As soon as everyone around her was quiet again, the light gray hedgehog took a deep breath and spoke only two words to her sister-in-law:

"What else?"

Everyone who had been staring at Maria now turned their heads simultaneously to face Lily, their fear suddenly returning to plague them once more. The lilac hedgehog nodded to acknowledge Maria's understanding tone, then continued with her report in her ever professional voice.

"We did manage to recover his vitals, and he's no longer in trauma. However, we picked up on something... rather disturbing... in his cerebral activity."

A sharp intake of breath was heard among some of the surrounding people listening to the news. Maria's eyes widened in greater fear as her heart began to sink ever lower.

"What?" she breathed in disbelief. "You mean... he's in a coma?"

Lily rapidly shook her head at these words.

"Not exactly", she replied hastily, before the listening group could have a chance to feel too alarmed. "We ran a CT on him not too long ago, and the scans indicate that his brain is indeed in a profound state of unconsciousness, but he's displaying a sort of cerebral activity that contrasts with comatose."

Miles eyed his sister carefully, a look of confusion in his green eyes.

"What does that mean?" he asked nervously. Lily glanced at her twin for a few seconds before turning back to look at her sister-in-law.

"It means..." she began after a long pause, unsure of exactly how to break the news to the people listening around her, "that something very severe happened to Shadow when he was hit by that laser beam, something that can't be fully comprehended within the realms of Medicine. His CT scans and EEG tests are contradicting each other; one indicates that he _should_ be in a coma, but the other claims that a part of his conscious mind is functioning normally. The best explanation I can give... is that Shadow is somewhere between being normally unconscious and being in a coma."

A long pause followed this last statement. The group of people listening to the lilac hedgehog's report now took to staring at her in shock, not one of them knowing how to respond. Maria gazed silently up at her sister-in-law, tears beginning to form once more in her dark blue eyes. Lily, who was finding it difficult to hold her professional air before her distressed family and friends, felt her voice trembling slightly as she continued to speak to the light gray hedgehog.

"Maria... I'm so sorry I don't have better news for you. I really wish that I could simply tell you your father is going to be fine."

There was another extended moment of silence, in which Maria and Lily simply stared quietly at each other and everyone else rapidly shifted their gaze between the two of them. Finally, after a minute that felt like an hour, the light gray hedgehog slowly stood up from her seat, then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the lilac hedgehog in front of her. Miles watched sadly as tears began to slide solemnly down both their cheeks and his wife whispered thoughtfully to his twin sister.

"But you _did_ bring us good news, Lily. My father is alive, and for that alone, I'm extremely grateful to you. You saved his life. Thank you so much!"

The lilac hedgehog hesitated for a moment, tears rolling faster down her cheeks as she registered those kind words, then wrapped her own arms tighter around her sister-in-law. And while everyone else in the room stared at the two hedgehogs with unease in their hearts and concern on their faces, Maria closed her eyes and focused on a single thought occupying her troubled mind:

"Dad... what happened to you?"

* * *

"_Shadow! Take them out!_"

Sonic calling out for him to attack.

"_He's an easy target! Shoot him now!_"

Something gone horribly wrong during the battle.

The scene playing out seemingly in slow motion...

A large laser beam speeding towards him, a bright flash of light...

Disaster.

"_SHADOW!_"

Cold... Darkness...

"_Shadow!_"

"_Male hedgehog, age unknown, collapsed as a result of a hit from a laser..._"

"_I know him! That's Shadow the Hedgehog!_"

Voices echoing all around him, seeming to come from far away...

"_No, no! _Daddy!"

A heartbreaking scream piercing the darkness.

The cold was pressing in ever closer, chilling to the core. The darkness was suffocating, closing in on his body, his mind, his soul...

"_Shadow..._"

The bloodshot eyes of a black hedgehog suddenly flew open, and the next thing he knew, Shadow the Hedgehog was looking up towards a great span of whiteness. For a minute, he did nothing but stare at the bright light, gradually recovering his senses as he became aware of his surroundings. He was lying on his back, his body was terribly weak with what felt like several internal injuries, and he had a throbbing headache from the voices that had been echoing in his mind only moments ago. And to make matters even more terrifying... he had no clue where he was or how he had gotten there.

After lying still for a long moment, Shadow finally began to feel his strength returning and his vision coming into focus. Slowly and a bit painfully, he raised his right arm, pushed back against the surface on which he lay, and lifted himself up into a sitting position. He then took to scanning his surroundings carefully, feeling his heart sink as he discovered the setting in which he now found himself.

All around him, extending out for what seemed to be forever, was nothing but white mist, floating eerily a few inches above the ground. No matter in what direction the black hedgehog looked, there didn't seem to be any sign of life nearby. It was a desert, a surreal plane of semi-existence unknown to the inhabitants of the real, conscious world. And he was trapped in it.

Shadow was just about to start panicking, wondering how in the world he had ended up in this place... when the last voice that had echoed in his mind called him again, louder the second time:

"Shadow..."

The black hedgehog slowly spun his head around to look behind him, feeling a slight chill run down his spine as he realized that the gentle voice that had spoken his name sounded awfully familiar. Shadow turned to face the speaker... and felt his heart almost leap out of his chest at the next sight that met his red eyes.

Kneeling a short distance away from him, an air of serenity on her beautiful features, was a young human girl with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was staring at the black hedgehog with a calm yet solemn expression on her sweet face. That face... He had never forgotten it for an instant since the very last time he had laid eyes on it.

Shadow's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the girl looking back at him, and as a tear began to form in the corner of his eye and he was overcome with terror and disbelief, he managed to breathe a single word to her:

"Maria?"


	2. The Abyss

In a wide corridor on the second floor of Green Hill's Diamond Heart Hospital, a light gray hedgehog stared solemnly through the glass of the door in front of her, into the room on its other side, directly at the black hedgehog lying on its single bed. She was at a complete loss for words, unsure even of what to think as the image of the other hedgehog lying unconscious and vulnerable in the bed burned itself into her mind. The only thought that managed to ring out clearly within her head was the notion that if the worst were to come of this entire ordeal... it would devastate her beyond recovery.

As Maria gazed quietly at her father, she sensed the distant sound of her husband's voice faintly blending in with her thoughts. Miles was standing a short distance away in the waiting room just outside the corridor, a payphone's receiver to his ear. The lavender hedgehog was currently engaged in a conversation with his and his wife's twin sons, who were currently at home only with his mother Amy.

"I'm sorry, boys; I don't know when Mommy and I will be home... Don't worry, we're fine. You be good and listen to Grandma, OK? Do everything she tells you. Mommy and I will be home as soon as we can. Now let me talk to Grandma, please... I love you too... Hi, Mom..."

While Miles provided Amy with updates concerning the night's unfortunate event, Maria continued to stare unfalteringly through the door before her at Shadow. She remained unperturbed by the many voices sounding in the waiting room behind her: Sonic attempting to comfort a desperate Crystal; Tails and Sonia discussing once more the workings of the Robotniks' strange laser weapon; and Knuckles and Rex still pondering aloud exactly how and why the Chaos Emeralds had reacted so violently with one another. The light gray hedgehog was almost completely oblivious to her surroundings... until she felt a hand being placed lightly on her shoulder, which promptly brought her back to her senses.

Maria turned her head slowly to her right to find that the hand now touching her shoulder belonged to no one other than her sister-in-law. Lily gazed quietly at the light gray hedgehog standing beside her, wanting more than anything to comfort her, to somehow lift her spirits. Not an easy task, but the lilac hedgehog was determined to help Maria see some sort of light at the end of her currently pitch-black tunnel.

"It's gonna be all right, Maria", Lily said in as reassuring a voice as she could manage. "Shadow isn't your average hedgehog. Anyone else might have suffered much more severe damage from that attack. The fact that he's alive is already a good sign; I'm sure he'll be fine. Don't worry."

Maria stared seriously back at her sister-in-law for several seconds, then smiled weakly and nodded once to acknowledge her kind words. The light gray hedgehog then turned to face the door again without saying a word. The lilac hedgehog followed suit, gazing through the glass along with her brother's wife, both women now watching Shadow in silence.

To Lily Rose Hedgehog, family was the most important thing in the world. She saw Maria as her sister, and saving Shadow's life had felt very much like saving Sonic's. The lilac hedgehog was nowhere near ready to give up on the black hedgehog's health, for if anything worse were to happen to him, she would take her sister-in-law's pain like her own would be for _her_ father.

As Lily stared through the door along with the light gray hedgehog, her thoughts began to drift slowly into unease. She soon found herself thinking of her own family: her dear husband, Calvin, who also worked in the hospital as a lawyer; and their two young daughters at the respective ages of four and two years old, Violet and Daisy. Seeing the everlasting expression of concern on Maria's face and hearing the tone of uncertainty in Miles's voice, Lily began to wonder exactly how great an impact such a devastating event would have on _her_ family. It was not a pleasant thought on which to dwell, and the lilac hedgehog did not wish to continue allowing it to cloud her mind.

"I'm gonna go talk to Miles now", Lily told her sister-in-law, breaking the silence between them. "See how he's doing. Will you be OK?"

Maria turned to the lilac hedgehog and nodded once in understanding. Lily then stepped back and retreated into the waiting room outside the corridor, leaving the light gray hedgehog alone once again to stare solemnly through the door at her unconscious father.

"Dad..." Maria whispered, feeling the strange sensations of darkness and loss closing in on her ever more, "where are you?"

The light gray hedgehog could already tell that the black hedgehog's condition was not normal, though she had yet to discover just how abnormal it really was. Neither Maria nor anyone else involved in this crisis could possibly know it, but although his body was still in their presence, Shadow was not anywhere within the realms of the normal conscious world.

* * *

In a strange misty plane of semi-existence, a black hedgehog and a phantom girl sat side by side, each one carefully studying the other, both silently recalling the last time they had seen one another. The hedgehog was finding it nearly impossible to believe his eyes. No, it couldn't be true... She couldn't be real... And yet, there she was, kneeling beside him in the same manner in which she always used to kneel beside him while gazing out over the world she had always dreamed of visiting almost a century ago. It was a simultaneously wonderful and terrifying sight.

Shadow took a deep, slightly shuddering breath as he gazed quietly at the spirit of his beloved friend. The ghost of Maria Robotnik stared back at the black hedgehog with an eerie sadness in her eyes, waiting silently for her friend to find his voice. She had to wait for several long minutes, but it finally came back to him.

"Maria..." the hedgehog breathed again. "What...? How...?"

The young girl smiled weakly at her friend, then softly spoke much lighter words in response:

"Hello, Shadow."

The black hedgehog continued to stare in shock at Maria, still unable to translate his thoughts into full sentences. All he could do was gaze at her in disbelief, struggling to understand the significance of her presence. Only one explanation came to him, a thought that chilled him to his very core. Shadow's eyes suddenly widened, and his next words came tumbling out awkwardly as he began to tremble in terror.

"Maria... Oh my... Am I...?"

The phantom girl immediately understood exactly what her friend was implying, and at his broken sentences and fearful voice, she rapidly shook her head in response.

"No", she replied quickly. "Almost... but no. You're still alive."

At those words, Shadow subconsciously exhaled a deep breath and placed a hand over his heart in relief. He was not dead. Not yet, anyway. But he still needed to figure out where he was before he could even come close to finding a way out. So many questions...

"Maria... what's going on? Where are we?"

Instead of answering her friend's question immediately, Maria looked slowly around at the white mist floating over the cold ground on which she and Shadow were currently sitting. That was it: mist. There was nothing else in sight to offer any sort of comfort to the two friends, any sign that they could somehow gain access to the normal world waiting somewhere beyond. The phantom girl sighed deeply, then turned back to the black hedgehog and spoke again in a solemn voice.

"I would tell you, Shadow... if only I knew. All I remember is that I felt some sort of... 'tugging' from my place in the afterlife, and I was summoned into this plane. To be honest, I'm not sure how I got here. I was just drawn to this place by a strange power, maybe Chaos energy. Of course, I knew that what I felt had something to do with you, Shadow; even if it was formed almost a century ago, our connection is still strong."

Shadow stared quietly at his friend as she spoke, choosing to absorb everything she had to say before replying. Maria continued:

"So the next thing I knew, here I was, waiting for you. I couldn't tell you exactly how I knew you would come; I just... knew. I can only imagine what could have caused such a powerful pull of energy in me, but I was sure it wasn't good. Unfortunately, it seems I was right..."

Once his friend had fallen silent again, the black hedgehog lowered his gaze to the ground and slowly wrapped his arms around his knees, now feeling immensely overwhelmed by the information that had just been provided to him. Another plane of existence... somewhere between the conscious world and the afterlife? That seemed to be the only explanation... and yet it wasn't much of an explanation at all. There was still more to be discovered concerning their current whereabouts...

"So..." Shadow breathed in an uneasy tone, finally choosing to speak again after a long pause, "this plane of existence... is a spirit world?"

Trembling slightly in mild fear, the black hedgehog lifted his gaze once more to see Maria nodding calmly in response.

"I think so", she replied in her soft voice. "It isn't really like the afterlife... but it's still a spirit world."

Shadow nodded slowly as he shifted his gaze once more to the misty ground. Another spirit world...

"Does this mean that my body is still in the... material world?"

"Yes. Only part of you is here with me. The rest is still where you belong."

Maria's last statements forced an awfully chilling reality into her friend's mind: his spirit had somehow been separated from his body. However, this thought only lingered for a brief moment in Shadow's head, for he soon came across a new realization of a considerably lighter nature. Fixing his gaze on the mist near his feet, the black hedgehog dared to breathe the idea that ironically provided him with a small light in the new sea of darkness upon which he had stumbled.

"Maria... if you and I are now in the same plane of existence... does this mean it's possible for us to touch again?"

It was a lot to hope for, and Shadow knew it. But although he was certain his question was a dangerous one in terms of his own emotions, he was also convinced that it was a risk he was willing to take. To be able to see his beloved friend again, to be able to touch her, maybe even hug her one more time... was a gift for which he had been longing only too long.

There was an extended moment of silence after the question had been voiced, neither friend saying a word... until finally, the black hedgehog dared to turn his head gradually upwards to gaze at the phantom girl kneeling beside him. The next sight that caught his eyes nearly caused his heart's spiritual counterpart to leap out of his chest...

A subtle smile on Maria's lips.

The phantom girl slowly extended her left hand out to her friend with her open palm facing up, and softly replied with the simplest possible answer:

"See for yourself."

Shadow stared transfixed at his friend's hand poised several inches away from him, hardly daring to believe that his wish of so many years might finally come true. After a minute that felt like an hour, the black hedgehog slowly lifted his right hand and reached out towards the phantom girl's left, without taking his eyes off it for a second. His hand lingered over hers for another brief moment, until finally, Shadow closed his eyes, gently lowered his fingers... and touched the ghostly hand of Maria Robotnik.

* * *

In that exact instant, back in the conscious world, chaos broke out. One of the machines monitoring Shadow's health picked up on an abnormal change in the hedgehog's system and suddenly went haywire. Specifically, the heart monitor. The steady blip of the machine quickly shifted to a racing pulse, an alteration that successfully caught the attention of the patient's family members waiting outside.

Maria Hedgehog was the first to notice the sudden change in the monitor's reading. The new rapid rhythm of the machine's blip caused her own heartbeat to accelerate to a similar pace, prompting her blue eyes to widen and the blood to rush out of her face. This was beyond bad...

As terror began to grip her insides once again, the light gray hedgehog felt the world around her slip into slow motion. She heard shouting around her coming seemingly from a distance. She only barely felt her sister-in-law's hands brush her briskly aside to remove her as an obstacle to the doorway. She hardly noticed the team of doctors rushing past her to follow Lily into the room. She almost didn't sense at all her husband's arms wrapping around her to hold her back as she subconsciously began to move towards the alarmingly quick blipping noise herself. There was only one clear thought within Maria's mind in the midst of the new pandemonium, and that was the black hedgehog caught in the middle of it all.

"Dad!" the light gray hedgehog cried as the world gradually began to return to its normal speed and she struggled against the lavender hedgehog's grip. Her attempts were made in vain; Miles would not let go for anything in the world.

"Maria, no! Let Lily handle this!"

"But... I have to..."

"There's nothing you can do! Honey, please, leave it to Lily! It'll be OK!"

"How do you know?" Maria replied in a breaking voice, barely aware of the words tumbling from her lips as she stared directly at her father in the next room. "How can you know everything will be OK?"

Despite his own fear and uncertainty, the lavender hedgehog kept a firm hold on his wife, refusing to show any trace of doubt regarding his own words on his face or in his voice. There was only one answer he could give her, one reply that came to mind in that terrifying moment. In an almost desperate attempt to calm her down, Miles pressed his lips to Maria's cheek, then lifted his head and softly whispered in her ear the only words he felt he could say to her in that instant:

"Because... it has to."

Knowing she couldn't resist her husband's grasp, Maria ultimately gave in to Miles's hold, and the two of them watched in silence as the lilac hedgehog in the next room once again directed her team of interns to aid the black hedgehog supposedly crashing on the hospital bed. The light gray hedgehog could not recall a night when she had ever felt so helpless.

Lily shouted orders to her colleagues while keeping her eyes focused on the machine currently emitting the shill noise that was provoking the chaos in the room. She was not about to allow anything unfortunate to happen to a member of her family, and she was determined to provide her sister-in-law with everything her brother could not. Shadow the Hedgehog would not meet his fate tonight. Not on her watch.

But as skilled a physician as Lily was, there was no way she could possibly know exactly what had happened to cause the heart monitor to emit its shrill alarm so relentlessly. She couldn't know how surreal her patient's condition truly was, and she had no clue that in his newfound plane of existence, the black hedgehog had found something – or rather, someone – with the rare power to jolt his heart into overdrive.

A dangerous situation...

* * *

Shadow kept his fingers clasped around Maria's hand as he felt his own heartbeat race into a perilously fast rhythm. Words could not describe his exhilaration. He had been certain he would never again be able to see his beloved friend, let alone speak to her or touch her hand. It was a wonderful feeling...

Wonderful... yet frightening...

Suddenly, without full understanding of why he felt compelled to do so, the black hedgehog released his friend's hand and drew back from her briefly in alarm. Shadow then glanced up into the bright blue eyes of Maria Robotnik yet again... and found that the gaze they were locking with his own red eyes was eerily calming and reassuring.

Another occurrence with consequences on his physical being...

* * *

In the material world, as abruptly as it had quickened, the rate of the blip on the heart monitor slowed back to its original steady pace. The first to notice this change were the two hedgehogs watching the scene in silence from the open doorway. However, it didn't take long for the superior doctor working inside the room to notice the abnormal switch of pace as well.

"Stop! Stop, stop!" Lily yelled to her team, suddenly thrusting her arms out and cueing them all to cease their respective tasks. A moment of silence followed, in which every head among the group of physicians turned to face the newly calm machine now blipping steadily, as though nothing had happened in the first place.

The eerie quiet in the room persisted for a chillingly long time, until finally, one of the interns of the group, a yellow-orange cat, managed to break her gaze on the heart monitor, turned to face the lilac hedgehog standing on the opposite side of Shadow's bed, and asked in a slightly shaky voice:

"Dr. Hedgehog... what just happened?"

The question motivated the rest of the interns to slowly look away from the machine and turn their eyes instead to their superior. Despite her awareness of the fact that she was now the main focus of attention, however, Lily kept her own eyes fixed directly on the screen of the heart monitor, still trying hard to comprehend the events of the past five minutes.

What _had_ just happened? The machine couldn't have malfunctioned briefly; it was close to brand new, and had never suffered any problems before... Had something beyond scientific explanation really occurred to the black hedgehog still lying unconscious on the bed?

As she stood there in silence, Miles stared fixedly at his twin sister, hoping beyond hope that she had some plausible explanation to offer that might stifle the concern he knew was rising ever more in his beloved wife's heart. But after another long pause, Lily slowly opened her mouth with only one vague answer to give:

"I have no idea."

* * *

For a full minute, Shadow did nothing more than sit still as a statue and stare transfixed into his friend's eyes, as though hypnotized by them. For a full minute, the only sound that was heard was the steady rhythm of his own breathing. For a full minute, the material world was forgotten; there was no life awaiting the black hedgehog outside this strange realm, no family or friends worrying over his condition, or wondering how he had fallen into such a state in the first place. For a full minute, there was only Shadow and Maria, just as it was in the past, nothing more.

And then Shadow spoke.

"How did I get here, Maria?"

The young girl took a moment to consider her friend's question, then sighed softly and replied:

"That, Shadow, is a question to which _you_ should know the answer."

Of all the responses Maria could have given, this was the last one Shadow wanted to hear. The black hedgehog sighed and lowered his head to stare at his feet again, only just beginning to comprehend the true severity of his situation.

"But how can _I_ possibly know what I'm doing here?" he said with a note of mixed confusion and disappointment in his voice. "I can't figure it out alone! And I need to know how I got here if I have any chance of getting out, of getting back to where I belong..."

There was a small pause in the conversation before the phantom girl spoke again. When Shadow heard Maria's voice, however, he noticed that it carried a much greater air of hope than his own had a moment ago, as if she knew that he did, in fact, have the means to discover on his own how he had ended up in his current predicament.

"What happened?"

The hedgehog looked up at the girl to see that her countenance had not once faltered from its calm state. Following his friend's example of avoiding panic, Shadow took a deep breath and thought back on the night's unfortunate sequence of events. Realizing that it would be easier to replay the scene backwards in order to find the cause behind his situation, he first considered the last memory he recalled before awakening on a different plane of existence.

"I saw a flash of bright light..."

"What caused it?" Maria replied, encouraging the hedgehog to continue with his current line of thought. Shadow paused to think about it.

"The laser weapon Eggman and his nephew built."

"Only?"

Another pause...

"No... The Chaos Emeralds reacted with each other too."

"Why?"

A longer pause as the hedgehog considered this last question...

"I don't know. Does that matter?"

The young girl gazed deeply into the black hedgehog's red eyes for a moment, maintaining her serene expression as he stared back into her blue ones, before finally replying in her sweet voice:

"You tell me, Shadow."

* * *

Twenty minutes after the strange case of the heart monitor going berserk, Maria Hedgehog found herself standing beside her father's bed, looking down at his expressionless face with pure concern on her own. Watching Lily attempt to save his life while she herself could do nothing more than watch had given her an immense feeling of helplessness. If only there were something she could do to pull Shadow out of his state, the light gray hedgehog would do it in a heartbeat, regardless of the consequences such a deed might have on her. But there was no way she could know what needed to be done...

Or was there?

As she stared unfalteringly at the black hedgehog on the hospital bed, Maria's thoughts began to drift to the events her husband had described to her of that evening's adventure. Miles had mentioned that Shadow had been struck by the beam from the Robotniks' laser weapon, at the same time that the Chaos Emeralds were reacting with each other. It was common knowledge that the black hedgehog was especially sensitive to the power of the legendary gemstones. It was also common knowledge that he had passed on this unique sensitivity... to his daughter.

An idea struck Maria like a small bolt of lightning. Indeed, there _was_ a way to discover what had happened to her father, and more importantly, what could be done to rescue him.

Just as the outline of the idea began to take shape in her mind, Maria heard a small noise behind her, which effectively brought her back to her senses. Turning around, she saw her husband stepping through the opening door into the room; Miles had come to check on her for what was probably the tenth time in so many minutes.

Seeing that his wife had noticed his presence, the lavender hedgehog proceeded to approach her, step behind her, and wrap his arms around her. Leaning his head against hers, he then asked Maria the single simple question on his mind:

"How are you feeling, love?"

It was a risky question, for the light gray hedgehog had clearly been in distress since she had first stepped into the hospital earlier that evening, but Miles still had the small hope that his wife had managed to make a fraction of progress in recovering from the shock of her father's accident. To his surprise, she had.

"Better", Maria replied, causing her husband's heart to skip a beat as he raised his eyebrows.

"Really?" The lavender hedgehog breathed the word like a sigh of relief. "Honey, I'm so glad..."

Miles wrapped his arms a little tighter around his wife, holding her close and resting his head on her shoulder. Maria leaned her head lightly against her husband's, all the while keeping her dark blue eyes fixed on her father. Comforted by his affectionate gestures, the light gray hedgehog continued to speak to the lavender one standing behind her.

"I have an idea, Miles", she said in a low voice, as though hardly daring to believe that what she had in mind might actually work. Her husband lifted his head slightly in surprise, hesitating for a brief moment before responding to this statement.

"An idea?" the lavender hedgehog repeated, sounding both nervous and intrigued. "What sort of idea?"

Another minor pause followed this question, in which Maria considered exactly how she would go about explaining her growing plan.

"You said my dad collapsed while the Chaos Emeralds were reacting during the fight against the Robotniks, right?"

"Yeah..."

"And one of them was inside the laser weapon?"

"Yes; it was the main power source."

"Tell me, love..." said the light gray hedgehog slowly, feeling her spirits rising with each affirmation she received to her questions, "did you ever recover that Chaos Emerald?"

A brief moment of silence passed as she waited for an answer, wishing like mad that it would be the one she needed. It was.

"We did. My dad snatched it back just after he destroyed the weapon. It's still in the case inside the Prowers' jet."

Maria took this moment to break her gaze from Shadow's face and turn to face Miles instead. The look in her eyes told him that everything he had just said was exactly what she wanted to hear. There was a newly recovered gleam in her dark blue irises, one the lavender hedgehog had been longing to see in them from the very beginning of the evening: a gleam of hope.

Looking deeply into his wife's eyes, Miles dared to ask her the most obvious question that came to mind:

"Why do you want to know?"

As she stared directly back into her husband's green eyes, Maria's lips curved the tiniest fraction upwards in a subtle smile.

"Because that Emerald is what's going to help me save my dad."


	3. The Return

The mist was floating eerily. The ground was icy cold. The landscape stretched for miles. It was a desert. There was no sign of life anywhere in this strange world, nothing to indicate the existence of sentient inhabitants of any kind. No sign, that is, with the exception of two distinct figures present in the middle of the vast plane of being. One of these figures belonged to a black hedgehog with red eyes; the other, to a blonde human girl with blue eyes. Despite their differences in appearance and origin regarding their current location, these two people shared a very strong connection, and more importantly, a common objective: understanding how they had ended up here, and what needed to be done in order for them to return to their original planes of existence, especially the hedgehog.

Shadow was restless. Unable to remain still as his mind raced, he had risen from his previous spot on the ground to his feet, and was now pacing back and forth through the mist. Maria, who chose to remain kneeling on the floor, watched her friend carefully as he would walk a few feet, turn around, and walk back the same way several times in succession, all the while listening closely to the words he was muttering relentlessly.

"The Chaos Emeralds..." were the words he kept repeating as he paced. "The Chaos Emeralds... A flash of light... The Chaos Emeralds..."

After several minutes of this pattern's persistence, the young girl finally broke it with the sound of her own voice.

"What about the Chaos Emeralds, Shadow?"

The black hedgehog paused in the middle of one of his recurring paths and looked up to stare at Maria. Her blue eyes maintained their consistent calming gaze, but once this particular exercise of logic and reasoning had begun, her friend could swear he now saw a new glint of excitement behind those brilliant irises. Shadow knew that look only too well; it was the very same look the young girl used to get whenever she would stare out the window of the observation deck in the ARK towards the planet she would see in the distance, all those many years ago. The hedgehog hadn't seen that bright blue-eyed gaze in almost a century, and seeing it again brought him a renewed sense of hope.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, Maria", Shadow replied in an equally tranquil tone. "It just doesn't make sense..."

"Why not?" The phantom girl sat up a little straighter in her spot as she continued to eye her friend curiously. "What doesn't make sense?"

The black hedgehog hesitated for a brief moment to consider the question, choosing his next words thoughtfully.

"The Chaos Emeralds only react with each other when something... 'important' happens, or is _about_ to happen. It usually happens when they're reunited after being apart for a very long time."

Maria nodded slowly in response to Shadow's statements, contemplating his words carefully.

"So something important happened tonight, something big enough to set off a reaction from the Emeralds. Was it because they were reunited after being apart?"

For the umpteenth time in so many minutes, the hedgehog replayed in his head the last moment he remembered of that night's episode, analyzing every detail that came to mind...

"... No. Sonic did break the case holding the stolen Emerald in the Robotniks' laser, but it was only missing for a week. That's not long enough for them to build up the energy it takes them to react like they did tonight. That can't be it..."

A moment of eerie silence succeeded this last phrase. For a full minute, neither of the two friends spoke, both of them thinking about the strange event regarding the legendary gemstones. Neither the black hedgehog nor the phantom girl could say what the cause behind the incident was, although the reasons behind this were very different for each friend.

As her companion continued to immerse himself quietly in thought, Maria let out a soft sigh and proceeded once more to fill the void of silence with her words.

"So it wasn't the Emeralds alone; something else started the reaction. But what could have happened that was so big it set them off?"

In response to this last question, the hedgehog stared quietly into the young girl's blue eyes for a moment, then sighed as well and spoke again in a low voice.

"What, indeed?" said Shadow curiously. "What, indeed..."

* * *

Miles Hedgehog paced nervously in the entrance between the waiting room and the corridor. Every few steps, he would glance in either of two directions: towards the large double doors on the other side of the room, or at his wife standing before one of the doors in the hallway. The lavender hedgehog grew more anxious with each passing second, for whatever was going to happen in the very near future involved the love of his life, and he had no idea exactly how the upcoming events would turn out.

As he turned around for what was almost certainly close to the fiftieth time since he had begun pacing, the sound of the double doors being thrust open suddenly reached Miles's ears. The lavender hedgehog looked up abruptly to see a blue hedgehog and a two-tailed fox now hurrying through the doorway into the room. He sighed at the sight of his father and his uncle, for Sonic and Tails were exactly the two people had had been waiting to see for the past ten minutes.

Sonic noticed his son standing on the far side of the waiting room, and immediately made his way towards him. Miles, in turn, left his spot in the entrance to meet his father halfway. Once the two of them were standing before each other, the lavender hedgehog proceeded to speak.

"Did you get it, Dad?"

"Yep", the blue hedgehog replied, and held up the dark blue Chaos Emerald he was holding in his right hand. His son nodded to acknowledge the response.

"Great. Maria is waiting by the door..."

Miles turned around and proceeded to lead Sonic and Tails into the corridor beyond the waiting room. Upon hearing their approaching footsteps, Maria turned to face the three of them. As soon as he was standing before her again, her husband indicated the brilliant gemstone in the blue hedgehog's hand. The light gray hedgehog glanced at the Chaos Emerald, then looked back up at her father-in-law and inquired about it in a serious tone.

"Is that the one that was inside the laser?"

In response to the question, Sonic gave a single nod. Maria smiled weakly and nodded back, then requested that her husband take the gemstone. Once his father had placed the Chaos Emerald in his hand, Miles looked his wife straight in her dark blue eyes and spoke to her seriously, a note of concern in his voice.

"Honey... you still haven't explained what you're planning to do with this Emerald. Why does it have to be exactly this one?"

The light gray hedgehog stared back into the lavender one's emerald green eyes with an equal earnestness in her own stare. She clearly had no intention of revealing too much too soon, though what in the world could be so secretive about her idea was beyond Miles's comprehension.

"You'll find out soon enough", was all she said.

Having nothing more to add to the conversation, Maria turned back to the door and pushed it open, subsequently stepping past it once it gave way. Her husband hesitated for a brief moment before finally following her into the room, leaving the blue hedgehog and the two-tailed fox to stand outside in the corridor, sensing small knots of concern forming in the pits of their stomachs.

Miles walked slowly up to his wife, who had paused beside her father's bed to gaze upon his face once more. Sensing the lavender hedgehog stop by her side, Maria spoke to him without taking her dark blue eyes off Shadow.

"Miles... stand behind me, please."

More confused than ever, the lavender hedgehog couldn't help but question the light gray one's intentions again as he followed her instructions.

"Maria... why?"

"Because..." came her soft reply, "I need you to catch me."

Catch her? Was she planning to fall? Miles watched as his wife reached out and gently wrapped her fingers around her father's. He then looked down at the blue Chaos Emerald still in his hand... and that's when it hit him. Suddenly aware of what she was planning to attempt, the lavender hedgehog sharply turned his head back up to face Maria, and switched from a tone of confusion to one of alarm as he spoke to her again.

"Honey, no! You can't-"

"I _can_", the light gray hedgehog interrupted sternly, turning around to gaze unblinkingly into her husband's emerald green eyes, "and I will."

"But... what do you think will come of this? Do you think you can use a Chaos Emerald to help pull your dad out of his... coma?"

"I think I can use a Chaos Emerald to figure out what's wrong with him. If I touch it and it gives me a vision about my dad, I can find out how to help him, how to save him."

"Maria, you know what happens to you when you touch a Chaos Emerald to get a vision..."

"I know, Miles. And that's why I need you to catch me."

As the lavender hedgehog glanced worriedly between his wife and his father-in-law, the light gray hedgehog continued to speak in the most composed voice she had used since she first arrived at the hospital earlier that night.

"Honey, please... trust me on this. I know what I'm doing."

Miles hesitated for a long moment, staring fixedly at Shadow as he considered Maria's plea... then finally sighed deeply and turned his gaze back up to his love's dark blue eyes.

"All right", he muttered compliantly. "You win. I'm here to catch you."

At this, the light gray hedgehog smiled weakly and nodded once in gratitude, then took a single step towards her husband and turned slightly to let him stand behind her, all the while maintaining her grip on her father's hand. Miles in turn took a step towards Maria, positioning himself close enough to hold the blue gemstone in his left hand out next to her. The former of the hedgehog pair slowly poised her own hand just above the latter's, and both husband and wife took a deep breath together.

"Ready?"

Maria nodded once in response, cueing Miles to nod back, then grip the gemstone tighter and tense up slightly in preparation for his given task. The light gray hedgehog exhaled another breath, closed her eyes, and lowered her hand to touch the Chaos Emerald.

Darkness was immediate. Within seconds, Maria felt her grasp on the material world around her vanish, to be replaced by a more ethereal sensation inside her. The powerful gemstone seemed to be drawing the strength from her body, and before long, the light gray hedgehog was completely detached from her physical being.

Then the visions came. Suddenly, images began to flash before Maria's eyes, accompanied by strange sounds. She saw a blinding light, and she heard a voice shouting her father's name. This was followed by a vision of Shadow standing in what appeared to be a sea of white mist, a young human girl with blonde hair and blue eyes kneeling beside him. The light gray hedgehog heard the black one in her vision speak in a low voice, saying something about the Chaos Emeralds... Then the image of a glowing gemstone flashed before her, and the next thing she knew, Maria was seeing herself running towards Shadow, throwing her arms around him... She heard the voice again, this time shouting her own name... There was another blinding flash of light... The darkness was closing in on her once more...

And then she awoke. Maria suddenly gasped sharply as her dark blue eyes flew open, her previously steady breathing becoming more rapid as she was pulled from her trance. Now back in her normal state of being, the light gray hedgehog realized she was leaning against her husband, who, as she knew he would, had faithfully caught her when she fell into unconsciousness. Miles helped his currently shaking wife rise to her feet, hastily questioning her as she turned to face him.

"Well? Did you see anything?"

In response to the lavender hedgehog's question, Maria nodded slowly, though she remained silent for a minute as she recovered from her strange experience. When she finally found her voice again, the light gray hedgehog stared straight into her worried husband's emerald green eyes, and breathed a single yet immensely significant phrase:

"Miles... I know what I have to do."

* * *

"Think, Shadow!"

"I'm trying, Maria!"

The black hedgehog sighed in exasperation at his friend's persistence. The young girl was obviously determined to make him realize some significant truth behind his unfortunate accident, but the quest to uncover that truth was an exhausting one, and both Shadow and Maria were beginning to run low on patience.

"You know what happened tonight, Shadow", the phantom girl insisted. "You know..."

"Yes, Maria", the hedgehog replied in a slightly irritated tone, "but it doesn't mean anything. It was just an accident, that's all!"

"Was it really?"

At this, Shadow raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"What happened tonight?"

"I told you: I was hit by a laser beam, the Chaos Emeralds reacted, and I blacked out."

"And why were you hit by the laser, Shadow?"

Maria had hit a mark. As it so happened, through all his efforts at logical thinking, this was the one detail that had not yet crossed the hedgehog's mind.

"What... Why was I hit in the first place?"

"Was the laser being aimed at you?"

Shadow thought back on the incident one more time, racking his brain to recall the few terrifying seconds just before he had actually been shot.

"I... I can't remember..."

And then it hit him like a bolt of lightning. The black hedgehog suddenly froze, his red eyes now staring blankly off into the empty distance, and whispered a single word:

"Miles."

Shadow turned his head slowly to lock his gaze with his friend's as the truth behind that evening's events finally began to dawn on him.

"... I dove in front of _Miles_! Is that it? Is that why the effect on me was different?"

Maria said nothing, but the faint smile slowly beginning to creep along her lips was answer enough that the hedgehog had at last begun to near the right conclusion.

* * *

"Shadow's in limbo!"

The five friends of Generation Beta stood close to a corner of the hospital waiting room, intent on remaining out of earshot of their parents, a habit they had all acquired in their teen years. Maria had just finished explaining the vision induced in her by the Chaos Emerald, and Sonia was the first to jump to a conclusion about it.

"'Limbo'?" Miles repeated his cousin's theory with a clear note of curiosity in his own voice.

"Are you sure?" asked Rex in confusion, cueing his vixen friend to nod in response.

"Well, what else could it be?" Sonia continued. "He's deeply unconscious, but he's not in a coma. His conscious mind is still functioning, but he isn't responding to anything immediately around him. Plus, Maria saw it herself: it's some sort of empty, misty world. It has to be limbo."

The other four friends of the group paused to consider the fox's hypothesis. What she said did make sense, though none of them were really ready or willing to believe it might be true. The idea that Shadow could actually be in limbo seemed to push the possibility of rescuing him further away, and no one had a clue what to do next. No one, that is, except Maria.

"I have to go in there."

Miles, Lily, Sonia and Rex turned to face the light gray hedgehog, both confused and intrigued by her words.

"What are you talking about, love?" the lavender hedgehog asked his wife. At this, Maria looked up to stare her husband directly in the face.

"I told you: I know what I have to do, Miles. And that's to follow my dad into that dark world... so I can bring him back myself."

"No!"

Three heads turned sharply from the first speaker to the second, alarmed by this sudden outburst. The light gray hedgehog was clearly taken aback, but the lavender one showed no sign of regret for his abrupt display of emotion.

"Maria, no!" Miles continued, growing more frustrated by the second. "You can't keep digging yourself deeper into this mess. First you wanna see what crazy place your dad is trapped in; now you wanna go in there yourself? What if _you_ get trapped in there too? What if we can't bring you back? How am I supposed to deal with that?"

"Miles-"

"I said no!"

Looking closely in the dim lighting within the corner of the waiting room, one would almost be able to see the faintest trace of tears welling in the lavender hedgehog's eyes. It was only too obvious why he was so aggravated: if his wife, the love and light of his life, were to somehow be lost to limbo, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

"Maria", Miles continued in a softer tone, "please, just... think about this for a minute. How is this even supposed to work?"

The light gray hedgehog slowly opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say a word, her sister-in-law spoke up first.

"We can help her", Lily interjected, all eyes turning to her now. "There's a way to do it right here in the hospital. We can put her into a medically induced coma. It's completely controlled; she'll be monitored the whole time. It'll reduce the risk of her falling into the same state as Shadow."

The lilac hedgehog glanced to her right at her brother... then slowly took a step back at the livid expression on his face.

"So you're agreeing to this?" said Miles disbelievingly as he glared at his sister. "You think this is a _good_ idea?"

The lavender hedgehog looked around at the rest of the group in search of some support for his side of the argument. His gaze fell on his cousin and his best friend, who retreated a single step from him almost immediately.

"Sonia, come on..." Miles pleaded desperately. "Rex..."

"I don't think so", replied the two-tailed vixen, answering for both herself and her echidna friend. "This has nothing to do with us. We're not getting involved."

Miles took one more look around at his friends, his frustration rising as he realized that he would have no support from anyone, that he was on his own in this discussion.

"I don't believe this..." he sighed angrily, and with that, he turned on his heel and walked away towards the entrance into the hallway.

"Miles..." Maria breathed in exasperation as she proceeded to chase her husband past the parents in the middle of the room and into the corridor. She caught up with him at the door to Shadow's room, and promptly grasped him by the arm to make him face her, her blue eyes locking his gaze. There was no patience left in the green eyes now staring back at her.

"No!" The lavender hedgehog was practically shouting now, a fact that was beginning to draw the attention of the parents still in the waiting room. "Honey, I'm sorry, but this is crazy!"

"Miles-"

"I know he's your dad, and to you this is the right thing to do, but I think I deserve a say in this too. For all you know, it's not even worth the risk!"

"Miles, please..." The light gray hedgehog raised her voice slightly, trying harder to be heard, but in vain.

"He could wake up on his own. You could be putting yourself in danger for nothing! Do you really wanna take that chance?"

"Miles, please, put yourself in my place!" Now Maria was shouting too in her determination to make her point. "What if that were _your_ dad?"

At this, the lavender hedgehog paused, taken aback by this new argument. His ability to speak had suddenly abandoned him; all he could do at that moment was stare completely awestruck at his wife. Maria took advantage of her husband's newfound silence and continued:

"What would you do, Miles? If that were Sonic in there, lying unconscious while possibly trapped in limbo, and you knew you had a chance to bring him back, what would you do?"

Miles remained speechless for almost a full minute, the light gray hedgehog's words ringing in his head like an eerie echo. As he desperately searched for an answer to her question, he slowly turned to look through the small window of the closed door at the black hedgehog lying unconscious inside. After a prolonged silence, the lavender hedgehog finally sighed in defeat and turned back to face his wife. There was really only one reply he could give her…

"I would do everything I could to save my hero."

Maria gazed sadly into her husband's eyes for another long moment, then finally sighed and brought her voice back to nearly a whisper as she took a step forward and gently grasped both his hands in hers.

"I know you're scared, honey. I'm scared too. But this is something I have to do. You know I wouldn't jeopardize my life with you and our kids if I felt otherwise."

Practically exhausted with defeat, Miles did no more than nod curtly at those words, choosing only to listen now as his wife carried on with the justification of her decision.

"My whole life, my dad always did everything for me. He was always there for me, no matter what. I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for him. And now... Now he needs me. This is my chance to be there for him. I can't just walk away from that; I could never live with myself if I did."

Another brief pause followed Maria's words, a tear now forming visibly in the corner of her eye as she fell silent. The lavender hedgehog breathed a heavy sigh, moved a little closer to her, and lightly kissed her on the forehead before looking deeply into her dark blue eyes once more.

"Then", said Miles in a soft whisper, finally free of frustration, "you go and be there for him."

The light gray hedgehog gazed back into her husband's emerald green eyes with a renewing sorrow on her own features. The lavender hedgehog took this moment to reach out and gently wrap his arms around his wife, who gratefully accepted the gesture. Miles and Maria remained silently locked in each other's embrace for a long moment – how long exactly, they never knew – as their growing fear twisted itself ever more around their hearts and their hope receded further into the darkness of that tragic night.

* * *

The mists of limbo were rarely disturbed. Given that very few people ever came to pass through them, they had inevitably taken on a very consistent albeit aimless pattern for drifting over the endless ground. Therefore, one would naturally expect them to give way to disruption rather fortuitously, and not in the orderly manner in which they now were for the black and red blur currently speeding through their midst.

Shadow ran as fast as his feet could carry him, multiple times the speed at which his heart was pounding. He barely noticed the mist parting before him throughout his path, for his eyes were preoccupied with glancing in all directions, searching for an escape. Unfortunately, it was becoming increasingly clearer that his attempts would all be made in vain, and after what could have been several minutes or several hours of persistent running, he finally slowed to a halt in defeat.

"It won't work", came the ever familiar voice suddenly from behind the black hedgehog, causing him to jump and whirl around in alarm to face the human girl standing just a few feet away.

"Maria! How-"

"You can't run away from this, Shadow. Not when you're so close."

"'So close'?" The hedgehog almost scoffed at his friend's declaration. "I was hoping that was it. There's nothing else to the story."

"So why are you running?"

"I don't know... Maybe the way out of this place opened up around here somewhere, now that I've 'solved the mystery'."

"But have you?"

Shadow was at his wits' end. With every passing minute that he was trapped in this world, he felt a greater urge to scream, to lash out at his surroundings, to break anything in sight with all the power he could muster. But his Chaos powers had not made the transition with him from the material world, a fact he had discovered during his latest attempt at escape. So instead, the black hedgehog inhaled a deep breath and seated himself once more upon the cold ground, Maria following suit.

"OK", he sighed in defeat. "Maybe there is more to the story..."

* * *

Maria Hedgehog lay against a comfortable pillow, staring at the blank white ceiling above her. As her sister-in-law attached electrodes to her head, the reality of what she was about to do finally began to sink in. This was it: her last hope of saving her father. If this plan didn't work, there was no alternate on which to fall back. Failure was not an option.

"These are to monitor your brain activity", Lily was explaining as she carried out her task. "You know, so we can follow your brainwave patterns and make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible."

The light gray hedgehog nodded once to acknowledge the clarification, though in truth she was fairly certain that it was more a means of the lilac hedgehog reassuring herself rather than keeping her sister-in-law informed. As the last of the electrodes was being placed over her temple, Maria took a few seconds to look out of the corner of her eye towards the right side of the room, where she could see her father still lying unconscious on his bed a few feet away and her mother standing faithfully beside him. A moment later, she heard her husband's voice speaking a couple of feet to her left.

"So how does this work, exactly?" asked Miles somewhat nervously, obviously directing the question at his sister. Lily took a step back from her "patient's" bed and looked up to address both of the couple.

"Medically induced comas are achieved by introducing barbiturates into the patient's system. We'll gradually inject the drug into Maria's bloodstream, which will slowly decrease her brain activity. The difference between her case and others is that at the same time, she'll be focusing the power of the Chaos Emerald to try to reach the same... 'level of consciousness' as Shadow."

The physician briefly gestured to indicate the blue gemstone currently being held in place on a small stand by her sister-in-law's right side. She then directed the couple's attention to a machine on the light gray hedgehog's other side, from which the electrodes attached to her head were extending.

"This machine will show us the exact changes in Maria's cerebral activity while we're putting her under. If she can manage to match Shadow's patterns, we'll know she's in. If not, we pull her back out of the coma and see where we go from there."

"Which is nowhere", Miles stated plainly, prompting his wife to reach out and touch his arm empathetically.

"Honey, please..."

"No, Maria", said the lavender hedgehog, now turning to face the light gray one. "We agreed that if this doesn't work the first time, that's it, remember? No do-overs."

"Yes, I remember. But we also agreed that if I was gonna get this right the first time, I would need your full support. Can you at least give me that much? Please?"

Miles stared for a long moment into his wife's dark blue eyes, the very same eyes that had been holding a subtle hypnotic power over his heart for the last fifteen years. He couldn't deny her anything she wanted this much; Heaven knew there were few such things for which she ever asked. So, with a heavy sigh, he took her hand and kissed it gently.

"OK, you're right. I'm sorry."

Maria acknowledged her husband's response with a weak smile. The couple gazed at each other quietly for almost another minute, until finally Lily broke the silence.

"Are we ready?"

The lilac hedgehog's question was greeted with slightly hesitant nods from her brother and sister-in-law. Lily nodded once in response, then directed her attention to her patients' respective spouses.

"Miles, Crystal... I need you both to leave now, please."

Crystal obeyed immediately, pausing only to give Shadow a kiss on the cheek before stepping around his bed and past the others out of the room. Her son-in-law, however, was not nearly as compliant.

"What?" said Miles indignantly. "Why?"

"Because I said so", replied Lily authoritatively. "Miles, you have been emotionally on edge all night. I can't have you in here during a delicate operation like this, not if I consider you a risk. Please step outside."

The lavender hedgehog wanted to argue, but deep down he knew that his sister was right. Unwilling to compromise the success of this plan, Miles reluctantly agreed to the request... but not before carrying out one very important task of his own.

"Wait..."

In one fluid motion, the lavender hedgehog stepped closer to his wife's bed, took a seat on it by her side, placed both his hands on either side of her face, leaned in, and touched her lips in a long and passionate kiss. A moment later, he pulled away to gaze deeply into her beautiful eyes once more and whisper the last thing he wanted her to hear from him...

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Miles gave Maria a halfhearted yet sincere smile, and with that, he stood up slowly and quietly left the room to watch the entire procedure through the glass window in the wall by the door, where the rest of the group were already standing and waiting anxiously. As a select few of her interns filed into the room, Lily walked over to her sister-in-law in order to begin the process of inducing the coma.

"You ready?"

In response to the question, Maria positioned her right hand an inch over the Chaos Emerald and replied with all the confidence she could manage at this dangerously uncertain point in time.

"I'm ready."

On that cue, the lilac hedgehog initiated the IV flow to introduce the barbiturates into her patient's system. The light gray hedgehog spared one last look at her unconscious father, then closed her eyes and touched the Emerald, continuing to focus its energy to the very best of her ability as the sounds around her began to fade and she finally became immersed in total darkness.

* * *

"I dove in front of Miles..."

Shadow had been dwelling on this fact for a while, trying hard to decipher its significance. His friend, of course, was always eager to serve as the catalyst.

"You stepped in front of Miles", Maria repeated curiously. "And...?"

"And nothing. He's fine."

"So you saved his life?"

"I guess..."

"Why, Shadow?"

The black hedgehog was somewhat puzzled by this last question, and looked up to gaze at his friend in surprise.

"... Why not? It was the right thing to do, wasn't it? He's..."

"He's what, Shadow?"

"He's... family. I mean, he's my son-in-law. He's married to my-"

And that one second was the moment of light to finally validate hours' worth of darkness.

"... my daughter."

As he spoke those words, Shadow continued to stare into Maria's blue eyes, and now as her lips began to curve slowly upwards in content, an equal smile of understanding was starting to form on his own face.

"Of course..." he breathed in immense alleviation. "I did it for her. I saved her husband, someone she loves, someone who loves her. It was always about her. I did this for Maria."

Then came the greatest surprise of all. No sooner had the black hedgehog fully thought this out than he suddenly felt a sharp tugging at his heart, the most real sensation he had felt since he first arrived in limbo. About a minute later, he heard another familiar voice calling him from far away, and more intriguingly so, by his favorite name.

"_Dad_!"

Shadow turned sharply towards the source of the call, and was thoroughly shocked by the next sight to meet his red eyes: racing towards him at high speed, an equal expression of incredulity on her face, was none other than his daughter.

"Daddy!"

Maria Hedgehog couldn't believe her eyes. She had found him. Her plan had worked, and now she was in limbo, a step closer to rescuing her father. She was so thrilled to finally see him in a conscious state again that the second she spotted him, she had to rush over as fast as possible and immediately throw her arms around him, even if it meant almost tackling him to the misty ground.

Before he had time to fully register her presence, Shadow suddenly felt the wind being knocked out of him as the light gray hedgehog practically charged into him in a powerful embrace. He paid little mind to this comparatively trivial fact, however, for the very sight of her filled him with an extraordinary hope that for most of the night had been feeling painfully elusive. As the black hedgehog gratefully wrapped his arms around his beloved daughter, he managed to recover from his shock just enough to find his voice.

"... Maria? What are you doing here, sweetheart?"

"Dad!" The light gray hedgehog couldn't contain her emotion, and began to cry heavily into her father's shoulder. "I can't believe you're really here! I thought... I thought..."

"I know, princess", said Shadow in as reassuring a tone as he could manage. "I thought too."

A minute passed in which father and daughter remained locked in each other's embrace, then the black hedgehog pulled away to look the light gray one in her dark blue eyes.

"How did you find me here, sweetheart?" he asked in a mix of curiosity and concern; the last thing he wanted at that point was to find out his daughter had suffered a similar fate as he had. Maria wiped the tear streams from her face as she proceeded to explain.

"It was the Chaos Emerald. You're under observation at the hospital right now, as a coma patient. I used the Emerald from the laser that hit you to get a vision, and I saw you here, in... limbo. Then I used the Emerald to get here."

"So you're unconscious too, in the real world?"

"Yes. They put me in a medically induced coma, to help me reach the same state as you. All I had to do was focus the Emerald's energy to bring me here. At first I just woke up in the middle of nowhere, but then I saw this bright light, so I ran towards it and... I found you. And I was so happy to see you, Daddy..."

Overwhelmed with renewing emotion, the light gray hedgehog threw her arms around her father yet again. It was only at this moment, looking over the black hedgehog's shoulder, that she finally noticed the other person currently occupying the space with them. Maria knew perfectly well who the human girl now smiling back at her was; never could she fail to recognize her namesake and guardian angel, Maria Robotnik. A moment later, Shadow released his daughter once more to proceed with his questioning.

"What do you mean you saw a bright light?"

Before the light gray hedgehog could respond, however, the phantom girl filled in.

"You found the connection, Shadow. By realizing why you ended up here, you found your strongest link to the real world, and then you led her here."

The hedgehogs, who had been watching Maria as she explained the strange light, now turned to face each other again.

"So", said the black hedgehog hopefully to his daughter, "I hope you came with a plan to get us back home."

In response to her father's statement, Maria nodded once, then raised her right hand and focused her gaze on her open palm. What she was hoping to achieve next, however, did not happen as she had expected, and this fact left a horrible chilling sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"Uh-oh", she muttered nervously. Shadow did not like this new tone his daughter had just adopted.

"What's wrong?"

The light gray hedgehog looked up to meet eyes with the black one, and now he could clearly see the growing panic on her face.

"I... I don't feel it anymore", she stammered, thoroughly confused. "The Chaos Emerald... It's in my hand in the real world, but I can't feel it here. I... I think I lost the connection."

At this, Shadow's red eyes slowly widened to match the level of fear clearly showing on his daughter's features. It was at this moment that the only person of the group still remaining calm chose to speak again.

"The Emerald may have been what brought you here, Maria, but is it really your main connection to your life outside this world?"

The light gray hedgehog turned to face her guardian angel, focusing on her haunting blue eyes for a minute as she silently searched for an answer to that question... And then it hit her. Suddenly remembering a very crucial detail of her vision, Maria quickly closed her eyes and threw her hands to her head, channeling every last bit of her energy into what she knew could very well be the last hope she and her father had of escaping from the terrifying mysteries of limbo.

* * *

Suspense in the material realm was dangerously high. Lily had been staring persistently at the electroencephalograph readings for the past several minutes, hardly daring to blink lest she miss a vital blip in the otherwise steady matching patterns of Shadow and Maria's cerebral activity. Meanwhile, her brother was exercising an equal level of focus as he gazed unfalteringly through the room's observation window at his unconscious wife. The rest of the group of heroes stood beside Miles, watching the people in the room through the long window in silence. For those several minutes, nobody made a sound.

And then the tension broke.

Without warning, the reading on Maria's side suddenly went haywire, rapidly increasing in spikes. At the sight of this, the lilac hedgehog felt her heart rate skyrocket; years of experience in Medicine had taught her that this sort of pattern was consistent with seizures, and though the symptoms of such a diagnosis were not showing in her sister-in-law right now, she was sure it still couldn't mean anything good. To make matters worse, the alarm signal triggered on the machine by the abrupt pattern changes had caught the attention of her brother, whose face was almost white with panic by the time Lily turned around completely to see his reaction.

Miles was desperate. He had no idea what to make of the alarming turn of events, and could do no more than watch helplessly as his sister proceeded to instruct her team of interns to reverse Maria's induced coma. He understood that the intentions behind this act were to pull his wife out of any danger she might be facing of finding herself trapped in limbo, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that somehow it might already be almost too late...

Unfortunately, all signs were now indicating that he was right. After some minutes of withdrawal from the coma-inducing drug with a consistent spiking in her EEG reading, Maria was still not showing any signs of regaining consciousness. While everyone else seemed thoroughly confused by this result, however, the lavender hedgehog was suddenly struck by a strange yet plausible explanation for the abnormal change in his wife's brainwave patterns...

"... She needs help..."

As these words escaped Miles's lips in a barely audible whisper, he felt the scene around him beginning to shift into slow motion. Without a second thought, he turned sharply to his right and bolted for the door into the room, a move that was noticed by everyone standing near him, including his twin. Terrified by the potential danger of his intentions, Lily sprinted for the door in an attempt to stop her brother from doing anything rash.

"Miles, no!"

But Miles would not yield. The lavender hedgehog brushed right past his sister as if he didn't even know she was there, never once taking his eyes off Maria. He reached her bedside in a matter of seconds, at which point, while everyone around him watched completely awestruck, he grasped the light gray hedgehog's left hand in his own, leaned in close to her head, and called sharply into her ear:

"_Maria_!"

* * *

At that exact moment, somewhere deep in the mysterious plane of limbo, Maria Hedgehog suddenly gasped in shock and dropped her hands as she whirled around to face the empty white sky. Her panic had been replaced with a renewed hope, for the voice that had just echoed out across the vast space, calling her name, was the very voice she wanted to hear. A few seconds later, she was prompted to look down at her left hand, where a sharp tingling sensation had begun to spread, the way it hadn't in her right hand minutes before. Yes, she had found the link.

Unwilling to waste any more crucial seconds of her rescue mission, the light gray hedgehog turned sharply back to face her father and threw her arms around him yet again, closing her eyes as she now focused every last thought in her mind on following the growing feeling in her fingers, knowing it would lead her to the real anchor she had in the material world...

Shadow embraced his daughter as tightly as he could, perfectly aware of her intentions. Though he couldn't hear whatever sound it was that had caught Maria's attention, he had noticed when she looked down at her hand, and knew she must have found a way out of this strange world. Looking over her shoulder, the black hedgehog caught one last glimpse of his human friend, a serene smile brightening her face. As Maria Robotnik bid him a silent farewell, Shadow felt a renewed calm overcoming him, and now the scene was beginning to fade, slowly blurring into darkness, until the last thing he could see clearly was a pair of kind blue eyes gazing back at him, and soon not even that...

* * *

Miles stood frozen to the spot for several seconds, hardly daring to breathe as his anticipation mounted. He knew it wasn't likely his actions would yield any results, but in that terrifying minute of silence, it was the only hope he had to cling to. The lavender hedgehog stared unfalteringly at his wife for several long seconds, waiting for a reaction that might never come...

And then he felt her fingers closing around his left hand, and every doubt he had of her return vanished into thin air.

Words could not express Miles's relief. The breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding was quickly exhaled as he saw Maria beginning to stir, and his heart rate initiated its steady return to a normal pace as he watched her inhale deeply and slowly open her eyes again. For that minute, it didn't matter to him what had happened in limbo, or if she had been successful in her mission. All that mattered was that she had returned, and more importantly, she was all right. For that minute, just her gentle grip on his hand was the most comforting feeling in the world.

Several seconds after following the call away from limbo, Maria found herself back in the hospital room, staring up at the blank ceiling. It took her a moment to realize where she was, but once she had fully recovered her senses, she turned her head slightly to her left to look up into the emerald green eyes she already knew she would see looking back at her. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so happy to see them.

"Miles..." she breathed in content, a smile now growing on her lips. Her husband's face sported an equal smile of relief as he whispered back:

"Maria... Thank Heaven..."

Her strength slowly returning, the light gray hedgehog accepted help from the lavender one to rise to a sitting position. It was at this point that Maria began to notice everyone else around her, such as her sister-in-law, the small team of interns, and the remaining group of heroes now filing into the room. A few seconds later, Lily stepped urgently around the foot of the bed and approached the patient from her other side, pulling a penlight from her pocket as she walked.

"Look straight ahead, please, and try not to blink."

Maria did as she was told, fixing her gaze on the lilac hedgehog's front coat pocket as a couple of interns briefly rushed over to help remove her electrodes. Lily took a moment to examine her sister-in-law's eyes, then proceeded to shine the light along the rims of her dark blue irises. Once she had confirmed a normal pupillary reflex in both eyes, the doctor switched her penlight off and addressed the light gray hedgehog again in a much more relaxed tone of voice.

"You're fine. Looks like you didn't suffer any brain damage. You should be OK."

At this news, Miles and Maria sighed and smiled in relief. They then turned back to face each other as the husband of the couple proceeded to question his wife about the events of the past several minutes.

"So... did you find him?"

Before Maria could reply, however, Miles found the answer to his question instead in a sudden sharp noise coming from behind him: Crystal, who had been the first to rush into the room after her son-in-law, had just cried out in shock. As all eyes now turned to the white hedgehog, everyone saw that she was running towards the opposite bed from her daughter's, where the black hedgehog who had been mysteriously comatose for most of the night was now showing signs of awakening.

Shadow inhaled a deep breath, hardly daring to believe that when he opened his eyes, he would find himself exactly where he belonged. When he could no longer contain his anticipation, he slowly opened his eyes... and was thoroughly relieved to immediately see the familiar and welcoming face of his wife looking back at him. Though his vision was still somewhat blurred, he could clearly make out tears lining Crystal's bright blue eyes, as well as the faintest hint of a smile on her lips. There was no doubt about it; he was home.

A few minutes later, after regaining enough strength to rise into a sitting position and successfully passing Lily's brief pupillary reflex test, the black hedgehog turned to his left to see his daughter in the next bed, gazing back at him with a broad grin on her face. Standing just beside her was his son-in-law, who was staring back at him with an expression of mixed awe and guilt. Shadow understood the look in Miles's green eyes, and in response, offered him a simple nod of absolution, to which the lavender hedgehog also nodded once and smiled weakly in gratitude. Now that the night's episode was over, there was no more need for guilt.

The black hedgehog took a moment to glance around the room, now noticing the other people looking back at him. He noticed Sonic standing behind Miles, a smile of content on his face; he noticed the Prowers and the Echidnas standing close to the observation window, obviously completely speechless; and he noticed Lily standing by the side wall with her team of amazed interns. It was then that the reality of the rescue plan's brilliance hit him, for clearly, until this point, it had seemed very unlikely to all the observers that it would even be successful, a thought that was confirmed by the next words to be spoken among the group.

"So..." said an astounded Sonic, "it worked?"

"Yeah", was the contented reply to come from Miles. "It worked."

Shadow took this time to face his daughter again, and now he reciprocated her grin with a proud smile of his own, breaking the peaceful silence in a whisper with the first words he had spoken since awakening:

"That's my girl."

Maria gazed quietly at her father for a moment before happily whispering the phrase she had been longing to say all night:

"Welcome home, Dad."

There would be plenty of time for joyful reunions later. For now, both the black and the light gray hedgehog found comfort in being able to fall back on material pillows and easily breathe in the air of the real world, knowing they could close their eyes and succumb to their exhaustion to drift into a perfectly normal sleep that wouldn't leave them trapped in a mysterious plane of semi-existence. They deserved nothing less. It had been a long and trying night for Shadow and Maria, and they were just glad to be home.

**The End**


End file.
